Never overly reliant on the
Holland-Dozier-Holland machine,
Marvin Gaye weathered their departure pretty well, turning to
Norman Whitfield (for the epochal "I Heard It Through the Grapevine") as well as
Ivory Joe Hunter,
Ashford & Simpson,
Frank Wilson, and, for two songs, his own pen. One of
Gaye's other R&B hits from
In the Groove, the impassioned "You," is in the
Four Tops style (it's patterned after "Reach Out"), while "Chained" is another brilliant performance and production of a sub-standard tune. The Brill Building standard "Some Kind of Wonderful" and "There Goes My Baby" were early-'60s throwbacks in sound and feel, quite a jarring effect in context. After "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" became one of the biggest hits of 1968, Motown re-released the LP as
I Heard It Through the Grapevine.